Ex parte Yelder
Decision Date | 14 August 1992 |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Parties | Ex parte Timothy John YELDER. (Re Timothy John Yelder v. State). 1910345. |
Johnny Hardwick, Montgomery, for petitioner.
James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., and Beth Jackson Hughes, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Timothy John Yelder petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari to review a judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals affirming his convictions for burglary, sodomy, and rape. We granted the petition in order to determine whether the prosecution's use of peremptory strikes to eliminate potential black jurors from the jury venire violated the principles set forth by this Court in Ex parte Branch, 526 So.2d 609 (Ala.1987), and Ex parte Bird, 594 So.2d 676 (Ala.1991), guaranteeing the constitutional right to an impartial trial. We reverse and remand.
In the trial of this case, the prosecution used 24 of its 32 peremptory strikes to remove 24 of the 27 black veniremembers. Following the defendant's timely objection to the racial composition of the prospective jury panel, the prosecution offered various explanations for the prosecution's strikes. A summary of some of those explanations, as set forth in Yelder v. State, 630 So.2d 92 (Ala.Cr.App.1991), and as supplemented by the defendant pursuant to Ala.R.App.P. 39(k), follows:
(Emphasis added.)
In many respects, this case bears a remarkable resemblance to Ex parte Bird, 594 So.2d 676 (Ala.1991). First, the statistics are strikingly similar. In Bird, although "black veniremembers comprised 36% of the venire," the percentage of black jurors actually seated on the jury represented "only 8% of the trial jury." Id. at 680. The State, in that case, "used 85% of [its] peremptory challenges, that is, 17 of 20 strikes, to eliminate 89% of the black veniremembers." Id. at 681. In this case, the jury pool contained a total of 86 veniremembers of which only 27, that is, 31%, were black. The State then used 75% of its peremptory challenges--24 of 32 strikes--to reduce that 31% by another 89%. 1
As we pointed out in Bird, the sheer weight of statistics such as these raises a strong inference of racial discrimination requiring clear and cogent explanations by the State in rebuttal. Id. at 680-81. Instead of such explanations, however, those proffered in this case virtually parallel the whimsical, ad hoc excuses we rejected in Bird--in particular, the State's explanations for its challenges of veniremember number 26 (same name as someone allegedly prosecuted by the district attorney's office), id. at 682-83; veniremember number 76 (excluded because of prosecutrix's "gut reaction"), id. at 684; veniremember number 96 (excluded because of "body language"), id. at 685; and veniremember number 33 (alleged "communication difficulty"). Id.
Moreover, the "articulation" or "communication" difficulties cited by the State as reasons for its challenges of veniremember number 75 and number 132 are not supported by the record. Specifically, the trial court's voir dire of veniremember number 75 elicited the following responses:
Veniremember number 132 responded similarly to the court's voir dire:
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